1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to communications, and more particularly to voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”).
2. Background Art
The Internet has fundamentally changed the ways in which we communicate by increasing the speed of communication, the range of communicating devices, and the platforms over which these devices send and receive information. The growth has been possible because the Internet employs an open network architecture using a common protocol—the Internet Protocol, or IP—to transmit data across networks in a manner fundamentally different than the way in which signals transmit a circuit-switched service. Within an IP network, data is segmented into packets and transmitted over a series of physical networks that may include copper, fiber, coaxial cable or wireless facilities.
Broadband services that rely on IP networking, such as email, file transfer, world wide web, peer-to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, streaming media, online gaming and voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) have been deployed across multiple platforms, including those provided by traditional telephone companies, cable operators, direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”), video programming providers, wireless providers and even electric companies using power lines.
VoIP services have experienced dramatic and unprecedented growth over the last few years. VoIP services can also be referred to as IP telephony, Internet telephony, Internet voice, broadband telephony, broadband phone and voice over broadband. Early ventures in peer-to-peer IP telephony were largely unsuccessful due in part to the nature of early IP networks, which offered limited reliability, poor voice quality and supported limited integration with the large embedded circuit-switched based public switched telephone network (“PSTN”).
In particular, for VoIP services to be of acceptable quality, high speed backbone networks and high speed access to these networks is essential. As defined by the Federal Communications Commission, high speed access lines refer to lines that support transmission rates of 200 Kbs or greater. From 1999 to 2006, high speed access line growth within the United States has expanded from only 2.8 M lines in 1999 to over 64.6 M lines in 2006, as reported by the Federal Communications Commission. Furthermore, the current growth rate remains exceptionally high with the number of high speed lines increasing by over 26% during the first half of 2006 from 51.2 M to 64.6 M.
Recently, at least in part as a result of the significant growth of high speed lines, VoIP services have begun to grow. According to the Yankee Group, during 2006 consumer VoIP adoption reached more than nine million subscribers, with penetration into about nine percent of U.S. households, which was up from four percent in 2005. Clearly the growth of VoIP services is in its infancy. A major impediment to continued growth and acceptability, is the integration of traditional or legacy telephones, also referred to as Plain Old Telephone Service (“POTS”) phones with IP-based phones.
Current solutions to this integration challenge are problematic. One approach is to use a POTS telephone to VoIP adapter, referred to as an FXS adaptor. Unfortunately, when using an FXS adaptor, all legacy phones must be connected to the adaptor and no standalone VoIP phone can coexist on the network. Another approach is the deployment of an IP Public Branch Exchange (“IP PBX”). This approach is similarly problematic, and also is a more costly alternative that is not financially appealing to residential users.
What is needed are cost-effective systems and methods that support the seamless integration of existing POTs phones and IP phones for placing and receiving VoIP calls.